I am a Burmese exile taking a near-permanent refuge in New York and Sydney. Here are my essays about Burma and anything else I feel like writing about. And posting the articles I like from selected sites. Bridging Burma to the world this Blog is more of a Politically-Oriented Literary Blog than a Plain News Blog or a Sophisticated Thoughts Blog.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Sam Bacile: Arrested For Blasphemy In America?

Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, aka Sam Bacile, was recently
arrested for violations of his probation terms from a 2010 conviction for bank
fraud. But many in both the legal and
political world believe that the real crime for which he was jailed was
blaspheming Islam.

Nakoula is an Egyptian-born US citizen with a history of
drug and financial crimes. In 2010 he
was sentenced to 21 months in jail and 5 years probation for bank fraud. The terms of his probation were that he was
not allowed to use any alias names or use the Internet without prior approval
from his probation officers.

Merely weeks after his release from jail in June 2011,
Nakoula posted a film trailer on YouTube.
It was a 14-minute video clip promoting the film “Innocence of Muslims.” The video was totally
un-noteworthy and of unprofessional quality.
Left in English, it might have gone unnoticed.

Yet, a few months
later, the film was translated into Arabic and went viral over the
Internet. It inflamed Muslims worldwide,
and sparked protests and riots for its content depicting the Muslim Prophet
Mohammad as a child molester, womanizer, and religious fraud.

At first, Nakoula acknowledged that he wrote the script for
“Innocence of Muslims,” but denied his role in creating the film. After all, the credits listed a “Sam Bacile”
as the producer.

But upon investigation, federal authorities identified
Nakoula as the culprit. Nakoula
confessed to producing the film and admitted that “Sam Bacile” was merely an
alias. Originally, “Sam Bacile” had called
reporters claiming that he was an Israeli Jew who had raised 5 million dollars
from wealthy Jewish donors to produce the film.
However, in the end it became clear the mere $50,000 to $60,000 film
budget was a gift from his wife’s family, who is based in Egypt, where the
riots began.

The riots spread to at least 20 countries worldwide and
fanned the flames of pre-existing anti-American sentiment, causing numerous
deaths.

Hilary Clinton and late Christopher Stevens.

Ever bowing down
to Islam, President Obama chose to blame the video clip for “spontaneous
uprisings” in Libya, which resulted in the murder of US Ambassador Christopher
Stevens and three other US diplomatic officials.

The administration held this story line for days. However, it became evident that the attack on
the US consulate which occurred on the symbolic date of September 11, was a
pre-planned terrorist attack executed by Al-Qaeda or its affiliates.

Nevertheless, Obama can’t seem to let the film go, even
referring to it in his address to the United Nations, castigating it as “disgusting.” And, while he gave lip service to the virtues
of free speech, he simultaneously raised Islam up as untouchable, asserting
that “the future does not belong to those who slander the Prophet of Islam.” It seems like a bizarre statement coming from
a United States president, until one remembers Obama’s Cairo speech in which he
claimed that it’s his job as president of the United States to “fight against
negative stereotypes of Islam wherever they appear.”

To make matters worse, this President requested that Google
(YouTube’s parent company) remove the video from YouTube. To its credit, Google refused, explaining
that free speech is legal in America and that Nakoula had not violated
YouTube’s terms and conditions.

Subsequent to all the attention paid to Nakoula and his
video, Nakoula received death threats from enraged Muslims who called for his
arrest and execution. Pakistani Federal
Railways Minister, Ghulan Ahmad Bilour, put a 100,000 dollar bounty on
Nakoula’s head, offering this reward to anyone who would find and murder the
notorious blasphemer. The Minister
invited both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda to join him on his “blessed mission.”

Sam Becile being arrested at his house in California.

Thereafter, Nakoula and his family were forced into hiding
and Nakoula placed his California home up for sale.

On September 27, a mere two days after Obama’s speech to
the United Nations, Nakoula was arrested for violating his probation terms.

Flanked by at least five law enforcement officials on all
sides, Nakoula was pushed into a car and carted off to court.

Assistant US Attorney, Robert Dugdale, charged Nakoula with
8 counts of violating the terms of his probation. The charges all related to using an alias
name and lying to officials about his role in making the anti-Islam film. The US Attorney’s office refrained from
charging Nakoula with unauthorized use of the Internet.

Nakoula was escorted into court with handcuffs and shackled
at the waist. His attorney denied the
charges and pleaded for his client to be released on 10,000 dollars bond.

The court, however, was unsympathetic. The judge ruled that Nakoula would be held in
jail without bond, reasoning that Nakoula was both a flight risk and a danger
to the community. The latter is a little
perplexing for someone who has never committed a violent crime. Nevertheless, Nakoula now sits in jail
awaiting the scheduling of his probation revocation hearing, where he faces the
possibility of 24 additional months in prison.

It is relatively easy to find technical violations of
probation. In this case, it’s obvious
that had so much attention not been shed on Nakoula’s video clip, any
infractions of the terms of his probation would likely have gone unnoticed.

Legal professionals and First Amendment advocates of all
political stripes are questioning the legitimacy of the charges. Due to the highly political nature of the
case, there is significant speculation that high level US officials may have
weighed in on the decision to arrest Nakoula.

Mohamed in Sam Becile's film "Innocence Of Muslims".

It is common knowledge that authoritarian regimes around
the globe arrest those who are politically inconvenient or at odds with those
in power. In Muslim majority countries,
even those considered secular, blaspheming the Muslim Prophet Mohammad is quite
problematic. The consequences can range
from community threats and out-casting to jail, flogging and even execution.

There is no doubt that in recent years, there has been
momentum building in the West for the silencing of speech which is critical of
Islam. Whether it takes the form of UN
Resolutions to combat “defamation of religions” (i.e. Islam), hate speech
legislation, or politically correct policy enactments, speech critical of Islam
or its Messenger has become increasingly verboten in Europe and Canada.

The question now
is, in the last bastion of freedom known as this great United States of
America, will man continue to be free to express his ideas, even if unpopular,
or will the government join the rank and file by retaliating against those
whose speech it dislikes, under the pretext of probation violation
technicalities?

Deborah Weiss, Esq. is an investigative journalist with
FrontPage Magazine and The Washington Times.She is a contributing author of "Saudi Arabia and the Global
Islamist Terrorist Network" (Palgrave MacMillan, 2011).A partial listing of her work can be found at
www.vigilancenow.org